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Survivor Series (2001)
Survivor Series (2001) was the fifteenth annual Survivor Series pay-per-view professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on November 18, 2001 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was also the last Survivor Series to be produced under the WWF initials. The Invasion angle ended after the Team WWF defeated the alliance. Background The event featured eight professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWF script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. The largest storyline that had pervaded the WWF in the preceding months was, as mentioned above, The Invasion which came about due to the actual purchase of World Championship Wrestling by the WWF just prior to WrestleMania X-Seven and eventually grew to a battle between factions representing the WWF, WCW, and Extreme Championship Wrestling. On the October 22, 2001 episode of RAW, Vince and Linda McMahon challenged Shane and Stephanie McMahon to a "Winner Take All" match to determine the fate of both companies; in Vince and Linda's case, the WWF, and in Shane and Stephanie's case, the WCW/ECW Alliance. Vince, however, had to deal with the defection of Kurt Angle to the Alliance and the constant feud between WCW Champion The Rock and Chris Jericho over the title. Vince began spreading rumors to the Alliance that there was a mole within their faction. On an episode of SmackDown! before the Survivor Series, Steve Austin was the last man standing after both factions attacked each other in the ring. After that, Vince appeared on the entrance ramp and shared a smile with Austin, teasing that Austin would be the mole. Aftermath The next night on RAW, Vince McMahon announced that the WCW Championship held by The Rock had become unbranded due to the dissolution of the Alliance and would be referred to simply as the World Championship. Several Alliance members were allowed to keep their jobs. Christian, The Dudley Boyz, and Rob Van Dam all were holding championships following the Alliance's loss (Christian was the European Champion, the Dudleys were WWF Tag Team Champions, and Van Dam was the Hardcore Champion. In addition, Stacy Keibler was able to stay employed due to her status as the valet for the Dudleys and Test won a twenty-man battle royal at Survivor Series which earned him immunity from being fired for one calendar year. (Some have erroneously listed Tazz as being in the Alliance when Survivor Series took place; Tazz had turned on the Alliance on the edition of SmackDown! that immediately preceded Survivor Series by choking out Paul Heyman with the Tazzmission.) McMahon also debuted the infamous "Kiss My Ass Club" that night, where he said that an Alliance member- in this case Alliance Commissioner William Regal - would have to literally kiss his ass to keep his job. At the very top of the show, Paul Heyman was the first Alliance member fired. Furious over being fired, Heyman lunged at his now-former broadcast partner Jim Ross, who was jeering him from the broadcast booth. The audience delighted in seeing Ross pummel Heyman before he was carted off by security. To replace him, Jerry Lawler was brought back, making his first appearance since his resignation from the company in the end of February after No Way Out. The Alliance co-leaders, Shane and Stephanie McMahon, were called to the ring to answer for what they did. While Shane accepted his defeat and walked away, Stephanie tried to plead for her job, but was escorted from the ring by WWF security per orders by the WWF chairman Vince McMahon. Based on his actions at the end of the WWF vs. Alliance Survivor Series match, for the majority of RAW Kurt Angle went around the backstage area portraying himself as the man who saved the WWF and wanting to be praised for doing so. Instead of that, Angle drew the ire of several WWF superstars including The Rock, who defeated him later that night. After the match Chris Jericho, who had been feuding with The Rock in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series over the WCW Championship, attacked him to reignite their feud. Despite his self-congratulating attitude, no one found Angle to be the conquering hero he was portraying himself as and by the end of RAW he was depressed and told Vince McMahon that no one appreciated him. McMahon agreed with Angle and looked for a way to reward him. That reward came was about to come in the ring moments later, as McMahon was about to announce the stripping of the WWF Championship from Steve Austin, who had not appeared on the show yet. McMahon's intent was to award it to Kurt Angle as a token of his appreciation for Angle's actions at Survivor Series. However, before he could do so he was interrupted by Ric Flair, who returned to a WWF ring for the first time since January 1993. He announced to a surprised McMahon that when Shane and Stephanie sold their shares in the WWF to purchase WCW and ECW, he was the man who was the buyer and that, as such, he was co-owner of the WWF and he and McMahon were now partners. Shortly thereafter Austin entered the scene and made a beeline for Kurt Angle, beginning to beat him around the ring. When McMahon tried to intervene Austin gave him the same treatment, then finally returned to the fans' good graces for the first time since WrestleMania X-Seven, when he claimed his WWF Championship, and celebrated with beers for him and Flair in the ring. Over the coming weeks the WWF decided what to do with the world championship situation, as now there were two world championships in the company. A tournament at Vengeance was conceived, where Austin and Angle would face each other for the WWF Championship and The Rock and Jericho would face each other for the unbranded World Championship. After those two matches, the winners would face off in one final match to unify both championships. Austin defeated Angle to retain while Jericho defeated The Rock to win the World Championship. In the finals Jericho defeated Austin due to outside interference from Booker T to become the first ever WWF Undisputed Champion. Production Vince McMahon was originally supposed to be part of the main event but was replaced by The Big Show due to injury. In addition, a title unification match between WCW Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac was canceled because X-Pac was injured and unable to compete. To resolve this, the WWF retired the Light Heavyweight Championship shortly after Survivor Series in favor of the Cruiserweight Championship lineage. Results Survivor Series elimination match Other on-screen talent Category:2001 in wrestling Category:Pay-Per-View Events Category:Survivor Series Category:WWE for Extreme